Yuriorkis Gamboa suffered the fifth knockdown of his career but like the other four, he got off the deck and won. Gamboa scored a twelve round unanimous decision over Orlando Salido to regain his WBA and capture the IBF Featherweight championship at the Palms Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Gamboa boxed nicely and took most of the first six rounds by landing shots and moving in and out. Salido, the cagey veteran that he is made the fight a raggedy one as he bored in and either tied up Gamboa or landed some pitter pat combinations

In round eight, Salido connected on a perfect right to the chin and dropped Gamboa for the fifth time in his young career. Gamboa got things going again in round ten when he landed a combination that he followed up with a huge left hook that bucked the knees of Salido. In round eleven, Gamboa trapped Salido in the corner and landed a combination. While in the corner, the two clashed heads and a bad cut opened up on the right side of Salido’s forehead.

The twelfth was a wild when as Gamboa dropped Salido with a quick left hook. Gamboa went to end things and actually sent Salido to the canvas again but while Salido was down Gamboa landed a shot to the back of the head. Referee Joe Cortez immediately docked two points from Gamboa. Not much happened in the last moment and Gamboa held on for the victory

Gamboa of Cuba won by scores of 114-109; 115-109 and 116-109 to stay undefeated at 19-0. Salido of Mexico, actually lost his belt on the scales at the second day weigh in as he gained twelve pounds over night when IBF by laws only allow a ten pound gain. Salido is now 34-11-2.

Brandon Rios scored a disqualification victory over Anthony Peterson in a scheduled twelve round Lightweight bout.

The two went to war ealy as they stood in the pocket and started throwing heavy punches in close. In round two, Rios started to impose his will as he started landing wicked uppercuts that got Peterson’s attention. Rios continued to pound away at Peterson and hurting him on several occasions.

In round five, Rios landed a big left hook that dropped Peterson for the first time in his career. clearly shaken, Peterson’s shots started straying low and in the next round he was deducted twice for low blows. Ironically Peterson seemed to have been steadying himself for two round until a left that went below the belt just as the bell rang to end round seven and referee Russell Mora waved the fight off due to the excessive low blows.

Rios of Oxnard, CA is now 25-0-1. Peterson is now 30-1.

Diego Magdaleno scored a fifth round stoppage over Carlos Oliveira in a scheduled six round Lightweight bout.

Magdaleno dropped Oliveira with a right hook in round two and hurt him badly again with the same punch in the next round. Magdaleno kept up the pressure until referee Kenny Bayless stopped the bout at 1:13 of round five.

Magdaleno, 131 lbs of Las Vegas is now 16-0 with four knockouts. Oliveira, 134 1/2 lbs of Brazil is now 25-2

Notre Dame Grad Mike Lee made easy work of Alex Rivera by stopping him at 2:59 of round two of a scheduled four round Light Heavyweight bout.

Lee, 176 1/2 lbs of Wheaton, IL is now 2-0 with one knockouts. Rivera, 173 lbs of Las Vegas is now 2-3.

Seventeen year old wunderkind, Jose Benavidez scored his eighth consecutive knockout in as many fights as he took out Manuel Del Cid in round two of a scheduled six round Lightweight bout.

Benavidez scored well with a hard body shot that hurt Del Cid in round one. He hit Del Cid with similar shot in round two that backed Del Cid into the corner and landed a couple more shots before referee Kenny Bayless stopped the bout forty-one seconds into round two.

Benvavidez, 138 1/2 lbs of Phoenix, Arizona is 8-0 with eight knockouts. Del Cid, 138 1/2 lbs of Los Angeles is 4-3.

Matt Korobov remained undefeated by scoring an eight round unanimous decision over Anthony Greenridge.

It was a good fight with Greenridge trying hard against the much more skilled Korobov. Greenridge was cut badly around the right eye by Korobov’s combination punching. Korobov had a varied attack of body and head punches. Greenridge’s cut worsened in the final round and was rocked hard on the chin midway through the final stanza.

Korobov, 160 lbs of Russia won by scores of 79-73 on all cards and remained undefeated at 12-0. Greenridge, 159 lbs of Atlanta is now 14-5-1

Photos By Chris Farina / Top Rank

Follow all the action as Yuriorkis Gamboa puts his WBA Featherweight title on the line when he takes on IBF champion Orlando Salido from the Palms in Las Vegas. The action begins at 10pm eastern with an intriguing battle of undefeated Lightweight’s featuring Anthony Peterson and Brandon Rios.

REFRESH AFTER EACH ROUND

12 Rounds WBA/IBF Featherweight championship–Yuriorkis Gamboa (18-0, 15 KO’s) vs. Orlando Salido (34-10-2, 22 KO’s)

Round 1 Good right from Gamboa..Handpeed from Gamboa…right to the body…10-9 Gamboa

Round 2 left from Salido..Gamboa lands a jab..20-19 Gambia

Round 3: Gamboa lands a big flurry..Good right from Salido…30-28 Gamboa

Round 4 Good jab from Gamboa…Lead left..left hook to the body…40-37 Gamboa

Round 5 Good left from Gamboa..Salido lands a sneaky right..50-47 Gamboa

Round 6 Raggedy action with Gamboa getting in a few shots…60-57 Gamboa

Round 7 Lots of holding and clutching..Gamboa lands a shot after the bell..70-67 Gamboa

Round 8 Right from Gamboa…HARD RIGHT FROM SALIDO AND DOWN GOES GAMBOA…Right from Salido…Left From Gamboa…78-77 Gamboa

Round 9 Left from Salido..Guys feet get tangled and both hit the canvas..87-87

Round 10 Combination and good left hurts Salido..97-96 Gamboa

Round 11 Gamboa lands a lead left hook and a right..Salido cut above left eye and doctor looks at it..accidental headbutt ruled..lead uppercut from Gamboa..107-105 Gamboa

Round 12 QUICK LEFT HOOK AND DOWN GOES SALIDO…Good left right combination..Left ..Hard combination and down goes Salido…Cortez saying Saildo was hit while he was down…Cortez deducts 2 points from Gamboa…115-112 Gamboa

12 Rounds Lightweights–Anthony Peterson (30-0, 20 KO’s) vs Brandon Rios (24-0-1, 18 KO’s)

Round 1: Trading body combination..Jab from Rios…good uppercut shakes Peterson..Good right and another from Peterson…10-10

Round 2: Uppercut from Rios..Good combination…right…left..Peterson lands a counter..Right from Rios snaps Peterson;s head back..good left hook to the body from Peterson..20-19 Rios

Round 3: Big uppercut from Rios…left uppercut…right..hook to the head..left..hook to the body..Peterson lands a left, right, counter right and 2 body shots..30-28 Rios

Round 4 Combination hurts Peterson..left hook..uppercut…hard left hurts Peterson..left hurts him again…uppercut inside,,,40-37 Rios

Round 5 Rios lands a good jab..ripping right…Short left…Peterson lands a left..BIG LEFT HOOK AND DOWN GOES PETERSON..50-45 Rios

Round 6 Peterson double jab..Low blow landed by Peterson and is warned..LOW BLOW AND PETERSON IS DEDUCTED A POINT…ANOTHER LOW BLOW AND A 2ND POINT IS DEDUCTED……59-53 Rios

Round 7 Rios lands an uppercut..Peterson lands a body shot..left and right from Peterson..Rios with a right..Peterson with a left..combination..left right staggers Peterson…nice combination..LOW BLOW AT THE BELL AND PETERSON GETS DISQUALIFIED

Fourteen-year veteran Orlando Salido rode an up-and-down career en route to winning the IBF Featherweight title earlier this year – a win that has netted him a high profile bout against flashy offensive wizard Yuriorkis Gamboa at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada tomorrow. Though he does carry the tag of champion into this unification bout, his role as of now is that of a supporting player. Gamboa is the attraction, and few give Salido much of a chance of pulling off the upset.

The last time Salido (34-10-2, 22 KOs) of Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico found himself inside a Las Vegas ring was also the last time he had an opportunity to springboard himself into the spotlight as a major player in the featherweight division. Fighting in the main supporting bout underneath the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Carlos Baldomir main event at the Mandalay Bay in November 2006, Salido completely outfought rising star Robert Guerrero to claim the IBF title. Finally, after a long journeyman’s career, Salido had broken through.

So it seemed.

Two days after scoring the biggest win of his career, Salido’s post-fight urinalysis, as conducted by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, tested positive for the banned steroid Nandrolone. The result of the bout was changed to a no decision, and Salido’s title was stripped. Salido had a follow-up test taken at the nationally known blood lab LabCorp, which found him negative of any steroids. It should be noted that Nandrolone is an anabolic steroid that may be present naturally in the human body in minute quantities. “I said I never took steroids or any performance-enhancing drugs and the lab tests prove it,” Salido was quoted as saying by the SportingLife.com after the second test.

While Salido may have felt vindicated by the second test, he remained suspended for nine months and did not fight again until scoring an eight-round decision over journeyman Marty Robbins the following September. In his next fight, Salido knocked out Hector Julio Avila in an IBF sanctioned title eliminator. Salido, who had publicly called for a Guerrero rematch in the aftermath of their first encounter, appeared set to get his wish granted. At the time Salido was made the mandatory challenger, Guerrero had already regained the IBF title.

Two months after Salido stopped Avila, Guerrero successfully defended his belt against Jason Litzau and soon thereafter vacated, stating his desire to move up in weight. Salido would not get the chance to prove the legitimacy of his victory over Guerrero, and was instead matched with fellow longtime Mexican journeyman Cristobal Cruz for the vacant title. In an exciting fight, Salido would drop a twelve-round decision that could have easily gone his way.

After Salido posted two wins over nondescript opposition, Cruz granted him a rematch this past May. In a fight that took place in Ciudad Obregon, far from the bright lights of Las Vegas or American television cameras, Salido dropped Cruz twice and scored a decisive decision win to claim the title. It was a big win, a title-claiming victory no less, but not one the magnitude of the triumph that slipped through his fingers in November of 2006.

Not until this Saturday has Salido had the kind of opportunity he had against Guerrero four years ago. Gamboa, the WBA Featherweight title holder, may have even more cache in the sport now than did Guerrero when Salido had his crack at him. Gamboa has made a swift rise from touted former Cuban amateur star to HBO headliner. He has a skill set and physical tools like few others we have seen in recent years. “I know how good he is,” said Salido at a Wednesday press conference. “But I also know I am capable of winning this fight and that is why I am here.”

It is hard to envision a scenario in which Salido, in spite of how rugged and willing he is, finds a way to unseat the Cuban virtuoso Saturday. However, boxing history tells the tale of many who have taken advantage of similar second chances. Four years in the making, Salido has his.

NOTES

-Several big fight nights have taken place in Las Vegas on the Saturday before Mexican Independence Day over the years, but one would think that there may not be an influx of Mexicans headed to Sin City to support Sonora’s Orlando Salido this year. Part of the reason being that Mexican icon Erik Morales goes for his 50th win against Willie Limond in Mexico City on the same day.

Morales (49-6, 34 KOs) ended a 31-month sabbatical looking much pudgier with twelve-round decision over former lightweight belt holder Jose Alfaro. That fight took place at 147-pounds, while Saturday’s will have a limit of 140-pounds. Curiously the WBC issued a press release stating that should Morales win, he will be implemented as the mandatory challenger for their lightweight title, which has a limit of 135-pounds.

-Integrated Sports will distribute the Morales-Limond pay-per-view event in the United States. Holding down the commentary duties will be long tenured play-by-play man Colonel Bob Sheridan and analyst Benny Ricardo. Three weeks ago, Sheridan and Ricardo held those same positions ringside in Puerto Rico for the Ivan Calderon-Giovanni Segura title unification bout. In the opening moments of the broadcast, the duo gave a puzzling endorsement for Javier Capetillo, the trainer who had his license revoked for the Antonio Margarito hand-wrapping controversy.

Capetillo is now a part of the Segura training team, and had attempted to gain a license to work the corner in Puerto Rico. Capetillo was eventually denied a license and therefore not allowed to work the corner, as he had done for Segura recently in Mexico.

Shortly after stating that if Capetillo were indeed guilty of what he is accused, they could “hang him,” Sheridan introduced Ricardo who took the time to defend the disgraced trainer. “I had the bandages right up on top, they were all together. I accidentally grabbed the old ones and ended up wrapping them,” said Ricardo, paraphrasing what Capetillo had told him earlier. “We have to put a rest to this thing,” Ricardo proclaimed. “We looked at Javier Capetillo eye-to-eye and said ‘tell us your story’. I believe him in this. Margarito has been a great guy, a great champion and this has never popped before. It has been addressed and we can put this to rest.”

Sheridan, who would call his 890th world title fight when Segura knocked out Calderon later that night, followed up Ricardo’s explanation. “I believe this guy, I believe this guy whole-heartedly. I think he has been duped by a lot of people. I take my hat off to Javier, and I hope you get your license back.”

I wish I could say that if it’s good enough for the Colonel and Benny it’s good enough for me, but I cannot. The fact is that Margarito’s hand wraps, admittedly wrapped by Capetillo, contained two primary elements of plaster of Paris, sulfur and calcium. There is no reason that any “old” wraps should have had those elements either. Segura has stated publicly that Capetillo has never wrapped his hands, an answer to a question he will likely have hurled at him as long as Capetillo remains a part of his team.

Photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank

Mario Ortega Jr. can be reached at ortega15rds@lycos.com.

World champion Yurikoris Gamboa, who usually trains in Miami, is off to the Fight Factory in Tampa, Fla. He is preparing to take on champion Orlando Salido of Mexico on Top Rank’s ‘Battle of the Champions’ on September 11 at the Palms Resort Casino, Las Vegas.

Gamboa, 18-0, usually trains in Miami.

“It’s a big fight and we wanted to get away and do it right,” said chief trainer Tony Gonzalez

It’s the same training facility used previously by world champion Miguel Cotto

Gamboa is the WBA featherweight champion. Salido is the IBF champion.

Team Gamboa is planning to report to Las Vegas on Friday, Sept. 3.

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Unbeaten Russian middleweight Matt Korobov is on the ‘Battle of the Champions’ fight card at the Palms. He is training with Kenny Adams in Las Vegas. Korobov, 11-0, is scheduled for eight rounds.

Notre Dame Champion Mike Lee, a light heavyweight, will box in a four-round bout at the Palms on Sept. 11. Lee is Notre Dame graduate, majoring in finance. He is Houston, training with Ronnie Shields.

Tickets for Battle of the Champions – Gamboa vs. Salido and Brandon Rios vs. Anthony Peterson – are $200, $100, $50 and are available on ticketmaster.com

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Las Vegas super featherweight Diego Magdaleno, 15-0, goes into his biggest fight, taking on Carlos Olveira, 25-1, on the Juan Manuel Lopez vs. Rafael Marquez world title fight card on Sept. 18 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Magdaleno is trained by Pat Berry and Augie Sanchez.

Tickets for Top Rank’s ‘Battle of the Champions’ — Yuriorkis Gamboa vs. Orlando Salido – on Sept. 11 at the Palms Resort Casino in Las Vegas go on sale tomorrow, Saturday, July 31.

Gamboa, the WBA featherweight champion, will take on Salido, the IBF featherweight champion, in the Pearl Concert Theater.

Gamboa, a big puncher, has a record of 18-0, 15 KOs. He is a four-time Cuban national champion and a 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist. Salido is the IBF featherweight champion. He has a record of 34-10-2, 22 KOs and is trained by former world champion Daniel Zaragoza.

“This is an exciting matchup of champions – a real battle,” said Bob Arum of Top Rank.

Two strong undefeated lightweights, Brandon Rios of Oxnard, Ca. and Anthony Peterson of Washington, D.C., will fight in a World Lightweight Eliminator. Rios has a record of 24-0-1, 17 KOs; Peterson is 30-0, 20 KOs.

Notre Dame champion Mike Lee of Chicago will be in a special attraction bout. Lee is trained by Ronnie Shields in Houston.

“Mike Lee is very popular. He is bringing a new fanbase into the sport of boxing,” Arum said.

Top Rank is promoting in association with Arena Box and Zanfer Promotions. The Gamboa vs. Salido and Rios vs. Peterson bouts will be televised on HBO After Dark.

Tickets are $200, $100, $50 plus applicable fees and will be available on Saturday, July 31.

To purchase tickets, please visit the Pearl Box Office, any Ticketmaster location, call 1-800-745-3000 or visit www.ticketmaster.com

The Pearl Box Office is open Sunday from noon to 7 pm, Monday from noon to 10:30 pm, Tuesday from noon to 7 pm, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from noon to 9 pm and Saturday from noon to 10 pm.

Photo by Chris Farina / Top Rank

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, WBA Featherweight champion Yuriorks Gamboa will now face IBF beltholder Orlando Salido after WBC champ Elio Rojas had to withdraw due to shoulder and hand injuries.

The fight will take place on September 11 at The Palms in Las Vegas.

“The doctor recommended that he be out for two months, so the fight is off,” said Rojas’ manager Tony Tineo. “Elio is very disappointed because he wanted to fight Gamboa and prove to the world that he is the best featherweight. He is very, very disappointed. He told me yesterday, ‘Oh, Tony, I have all my plans on how I’m going to beat Gamboa and then it all goes down.’ I told him, ‘We can fight him in the future.’ ”

“The hand was injured in that fight and that is why he didn’t knock Espadas out,” Tineo said. “Now it’s still giving him problems. Elio wants to fight, but as the manager, I spoke with the doctor and we made the decision. We decided no fight because the arm and hand were bothering him too much. We have to follow the doctor’s instructions. This is his future. I can’t send him into a fight with damage. I can’t let him fight with an injury.”

“We had Salido and wanted to make that fight. HBO wanted Rojas,” Said Bob Arum, who promotes both Gamboa and Salido. “So they went to [Rojas’ promoter] Don King and they got Rojas done. And then Rojas got hurt and he can’t fight and now we’ve gone back to Salido and HBO has OK’d Salido. Salido is a big puncher and it probably will be a more exciting fight than Rojas anyway because Rojas is more of a boxer. The fight with Gamboa should be a really good fight between two big punchers.”

Arum said HBO asked Top Rank to reconsider trying to make a deal for Gamboa to face Celestino Caballero, the former unified junior featherweight titlist who moved up in weight and made his HBO debut with a tremendous performance against Daud Yordan in April.

“We said, ‘Listen, it’s only about a month until the fight and the big guy [Caballero] towers over everybody,’ ” Arum said. “You have to get the right sparring partners. It’s not fair to do that to Gamboa on short notice. But what I told HBO is that we have no problem fighting the guy next as long as the money is right. I even told them we’ll do a nice Caballero fight on one of our pay-per-view undercards as long as it doesn’t cost me a lot of money and we can set up the fight next.”

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, an agreement has been reached between Featherweight beltholder’s Yuriorks Gamboa and Elio Rojas in a bout that will take place on September 11 in a site to be determined.

“We’ve sent them a draft of the contract for them to review and we’re waiting for their comments, but we’ve agreed on the terms,” Carl Moretti of Top Rank, who promotes Gamboa told ESPN.com.

Before Salido got the fight with Gamboa, Rojas had been the target. However, according to Top Rank, issues between King and Rojas’ manager, along with the tight schedule, forced Top Rank to turn to Salido, who it also promotes.

Once Salido dropped out and there was more time to make a fight for Gamboa, Top Rank made another run at Rojas because that is who HBO preferred, Moretti said.

“Style-wise, Rojas presents Gamboa with a different kind of fight than Salido,” Moretti said. “Salido is right-handed and in front of you and can punch. Rojas is a lefty, he’s taller than Gamboa and not easy to hit. He’s more of a pure boxer.”

“It’s Gamboa’s title against Rojas’ title. Pretty simple,” Moretti said.

“It shows that they really believe they have a shot to win the fight, which they do,” he said.

“He wanted this fight. He wanted Gamboa or [titlist] ‘Juanma’ Lopez, and now he has one, and when he beats him, he would go for another unification fight,” Victor Rojas, Elio’s uncle and one of his representatives, told ESPNdeportes.com.

To prepare for the fight, Rojas has hooked up with a new trainer, the highly regarded Kevin Cunningham. Cunningham, who is training unified junior welterweight titlist Devon Alexander for his Aug. 7 fight with former titleholder Andreas Kotelnik in Las Vegas, said Rojas joined the camp on June 30.

“They called me and asked me if I would train him,” said Cunningham, who first met Rojas several years ago at King’s training facility in Orwell, Ohio. “Elio is a good kid. He watched the way I run my camps when we were in Ohio and he has wanted me to work with him and this opportunity came up.

“This could be a very, very good fight. You’ve got Gamboa, who’s coming in with good hand speed and he can punch and he has had his way with everybody he’s fought so far. But I think Elio is the most talented opponent Gamboa would have seen so far in his career, so I like Elio’s chances. He’s going to have to be at his best and extremely sharp, but I see a lot of mistakes that Gamboa makes. I got nine weeks to get Elio ready and he will be ready.”

The planned co-feature is a lightweight title eliminator between Anthony Peterson (30-0, 20 KOs), of Washington, D.C., and Brandon Rios (24-0-1, 18 KOs), of Oxnard, Calif., both of whom are promoted by Top Rank. The winner is supposed to become the mandatory challenger for titlist Miguel Acosta, another Top Rank fighter.

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, WBA Featherweight champion will take on undefeated Argentinean Jonathan Victor Barros (28-0-1, 16 KO’s) March 27th in Germany.

The card will take place in Hamburg and will be the first show of Gamboa’s co-promoter, Arena-Box deal with German television network SAT.1

“We don’t know a lot about him, but any time you fight a fighter from Argentina, you’ll probably get a crude guy with a decent chin who is a wild puncher, so there is always some danger,” said CarlMoretti of Gamboa’s co-promoter Top Rank. “I know Gamboa is an excellent talent and this is another step as we move forward.”

“This will be our special highlight for our new TV partner,” said Ahmet Öner of Arena Box. “Of course, it is not easy to bring a superstar like Gamboa to Germany, but he is my fighter so I am very proud to bring him back to where his pro career started three years ago. When Gamboa will be back in Hamburg it will feel like a circle is complete.

“I know that he has lots of friends here and is happy to return to Germany. But this will be an exception. Gamboa’s main market is in the USA now. He will be in Germany for this one fight only and then continue his great career in the big venues in the States.

“This will be our biggest show in Germany so far,” Öner said. “With SAT.1 we have finally found a major TV partner who helps us to bring great fights to a big audience. Of course, a German TV station wants to present German fighters. That is why we have decided to feature the heavyweight clash between Steffen Kretschmann and Denis Bakhtov as one of two main events.”

Photo by Claudia Bocanegra

Before you put all your money on the single toss of Yuriorkis Gamboa over Juan Manuel Lopez in a featherweight superfight, consider this: Gamboa just razed a guy with 13 losses coming up (or not) from a weight class below; Lopez just rose four pounds to take the WBO belt from a titlist with one career loss. Sobriety is warranted.

But not much. Gamboa’s ruination of Rogers Mtagwa in their WBA featherweight title tilt at Madison Square Garden’s theater, Saturday, was a good show. It was improved by Gamboa’s needing only 5 1/2 minutes to stop Mtagwa, a feat Lopez didn’t pull off in 36.

Lopez, for his part, was not idle. In the main event of HBO’s “Boxing After Dark” doubleheader, “Juanma” outfought Steven Luevano to claim a second title in as many weight classes, stopping the veteran Californian at 0:44 of round seven.

The more telegenic display belonged to Gamboa. Every time he saw Mtagwa’s right shoulder twitch for a cross, Gamboa fired a left hook. And he didn’t miss. Mtagwa was a pitiable target for the fight’s duration, leading referee Steve Smoger’s TKO signal to get the old “merciful” label.

How much was Mtagwa affected by what he and Lopez did to one another in October? Why didn’t Mtagwa come within 3 1/2 pounds of the featherweight limit for this fight? Good questions, both. But we’re not much interested in the answers. We’re interested in how Gamboa’s undoing of Mtagwa helps ensure Gamboa’s next opponent is Lopez. Saturday’s action helped.

Puerto Ricans were always going to turn out for Lopez in a world title fight. Now many of us can turn out for Gamboa, a 126-pound Cuban version of Mike Tyson with better habits in the ring and out.

Thoughts of Tyson had to have gone through a few minds Saturday. The spite for an opponent’s primitive skills combined with well-leveraged short hooks, quick feet and a brutal ending. Such thoughts will go through many more minds if Gamboa finds a way to make Juanma into Michael Spinks – a prospect by no means impossible and by all means unlikely.

Because he’s been kept on Top Rank pay-per-view undercards and long lacked a ringside identity, Steven Luevano has not been properly appreciated. By extension, few fans will credit Lopez properly for what he just did. Luevano hasn’t concussive power, incalculable speed or impenetrable defense. But he has wiles. And he’d had class enough to make it through six title fights without being beaten, much less stopped. He was not, then, the sort of prizefighter you hammer with a right uppercut.

Yet that’s what Lopez did early in the seventh round. Once he saw Luevano’s chin rise and eyes grow, Lopez, a southpaw, threw a left cross, stepped his back foot to the front, and blasted Luevano with a right hook. That was a finisher’s move.

Lopez had a lot of reminding to do Saturday, and he accomplished most of it. But after Rogers Mtagwa took him cruising up and down “queer street” – that GPS coordinate old timers employed before there was GPS – just 105 days ago, Lopez now has a somewhat scuffed image in most serious fans’ minds. That’s fine.

We turn to the fairer sex for an idea about scuffing things. Women have a learned distrust for the smooth. Dollar bills and shoe soles, specifically. Until you’ve roughed-up a newly minted bill, it has an unfortunate tendency to adhere to other bills. And until you’ve roughed up the underside of a sole, it has a dangerous tendency to treat dust and water like ice. Both bills and shoes, though, retain their value long after you’ve scuffed them.

Lopez is now scuffed and trustworthy. We know that when he is semiconscious from fatigue and blows to the head, his impulse is to swim at an opponent, forsaking unreliable reflexes and raising the stakes for both men.

Norm Frauenheim captured something like this idea a few years ago in The Arizona Republic when he wrote “undefeated is untested” then disqualified any unvanquished fighter from his all-time Top 5 list. There’s wisdom in that, which is probably why it incites young fans.

About a decade ago when Roy Jones Jr. terrified civil servants in the light heavyweight division, RJJ was fond of dismissing fans’ pleas for larger challenges by saying, “Y’all just wanna see me bleed.” Today he wishes he could have those bloodless days back.

While it behooves managers and promoters to demand the highest pay for the slightest risk, ultimately it cheats both fighters and aficionados. If you are a fan of prizefighting – not merely your favorite prizefighter’s cheerleader – you want to see a fighter bloodied, roughed up, scuffed. It reveals his character and worthiness of your devotion.

If you love an athlete too much to bear the sight of his being bludgeoned by another man’s fists, that’s understandable. Boxing isn’t your sport.

To date, Yuriorkis Gamboa has been dropped several times but never hurt. He’s taken a fantastic amateur career and used its lessons to see wide openings and exploit them completely. Gamboa has not yet had to create openings against an equal. He’s not yet had to clip someone like Steven Luevano with a right uppercut in the seventh round of a competitive fight. Does Gamboa know how to do this? Yes. Can he land that punch on a veteran titlist? We have no idea.

But we should desperately want to find out. Gamboa contends Juan Manuel Lopez is not in his category, and he may be right. It’s hard to think of anyone currently at 126 pounds who’s better capable of matching Gamboa’s speed, power, technique and experience than Lopez, though.

If Lopez-Gamboa happens, even with Vazquez-Marquez IV already on the docket, there’s good reason to think it will be the best mix of violence, class and consequence we see in 2010.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter.com/bartbarry

Photo by Chris Farina/ Top Rank

Weekly Sunday Morning Open Line talk show with Marc Abrams LIVE on air with ringside report from MSG and the Lopez/Gamboa fights! 15rounds.com’s Johnny Schulz writer presents: Talking BOXING with JSizzle and New York Dan NYD – A weekly Sunday Morning boxing show covering Boxing from all angles. Alongside and boxing aficionado Danny “NYD” Stasiukiewicz, RTB will cover: • All of the week’s top boxing stories from results to upcoming fights to anything and everything Boxing.